Dream housing: Exploring effective factors on housing livability in the neighborhood from the perspective of residents

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to develop a new concept of livability as "livable housing" in order to identify the factors that determine the subjective satisfaction of residents with the internal and surrounding environment of the housing and to estimate its level among urban neighborhoods with subjective and objective data. In order to fill the knowledge gap in livability studies, especially housing livability, the present study has looked at the link between livability and housing indicators and has evaluated this link among the residents of urban neighborhoods with different socio-economic contexts. This study has been evaluated the indicators of livable housing in an empirical analysis among the neighborhoods of Karaj metropolitan area (as a leading city) with the cluster sampling method and choosing 8 neighborhoods (as the scope of the research) as well as 402 cases (as a sample statistics derived from Cochran's formula).In this evaluation, the questionnaire with (72 sub-indicators in 15 groups) is the main criterion for data collection, and the analyzes are using statistical and spatial combined methods. The statistical analysis of the questionnaire includes preparing the data for weighting and determining the important and influential factors with the exploratory factor analysis method in the SPSS environment. The stratification of neighborhoods is done with the multi-criteria decision-making model (TODIM) by combining the raw data and the weight of indicators extracted from the EFA method. Also, the accuracy of the results has been measured with the RMS method and the use of spatial methods in (GIS).The results showed environmental, social, economic and physical macro-factors respectively have the greatest effects on the livability of housing. The indicators of facilities and infrastructures, open and public space, cleanliness and pollution were the indicators of increasing livability and satisfaction, and the indicators of place connection and belonging, access and transportation, personal and social security were the indicators of decreasing livability. In general, the neighborhoods are in different conditions of housing livability and without continuity and principles of regularity. This difference in the different effects of indicators in neighborhoods is due to the inherent differences of neighborhoods and people's mental filters. The (89%) overlap obtained from the validation of the results indicates the existence of a very insignificant difference and acceptable agreement of the results of the two methods of spatial-spatial analysis. Considering the importance of the relationship between man and the urban environment and the quality of human life, it is recommended to pay special attention to community-orientedness and local assets and a bottom-up approach in livability surveys at any scale. Also, this study suggests important policy implications for achieving urban sustainability by improving housing livability.